Practice Makes Romance
by Don'tCallMeStraightOrCis
Summary: As Leon discovered, trying to achieve your dream of being a rockstar wasn't easy when you didn't know how to play the guitar. Thankfully, a certain someone does...


He winced as once again, he was shot a glare from the mother of the family sitting a little way away from him.

Leon knew he wasn't exactly fantastic at playing the guitar, but he didn't think he was doing that badly to warrant ten glares... and being kicked out of the little cafe (could he technically he kicked out if he wasn't actually inside the cafe, and was actually sitting outside of it, he wondered).

He sighed and put his guitar down as the mother got up and stormed inside. Great, just great. He'd spent forever trying to find a good place to practice - anywhere in Hope's Peak was out since he didn't want anyone hearing him play until he was good, and there wasn't exactly any buildings available solely for practicing guitar - and now he'd found it, he was going to be kicked out of it. Great.

He strummed a last bad note as the mother came back, a smug smirk on her face, and someone appeared in front of him.

"Any reason why you're playing the guitar badly outside of a cafe at 10 in the morning?"

The person was a short, cute guy with messy brown hair, pale green eyes and a pretty voice - exactly Leon's type.

While to most it seemed like Leon's was 'all about the ladies', it wasn't exactly true. He did like guys, it was just that it was safer and easier to get a girl. But that didn't mean he wouldn't give a guy a shot if he especially liked them.

"I need to practice," Leon replied, "Can't become a rockstar if I don't practice, right?"

Leon was used to his friends teasing him and laughing at his dream, which made the guy's reaction all the more inpactful.

The guy smiled softly and tipped his head a little.

"I guess I should be asking for your autograph then instead of your money and for you to leave then."

Flirting. That was definitely flirting, Leon decided. And some pretty good flirting too. His face flushed and he stared wide eyes for a second, before catching himself and shooting the guy a grin.

"Hell yeah; should be careful how you treat a future rockstar."

The guy - Naegi as the name tag said - laughed, and yeah, that guy definitely had a pretty voice.

"Might be an idea to have at least one guitar lesson before you start your climb to fame though, it might help."

"I can teach myself!"

"Still, you do need something to work off," Naegi said, "At the very least to speed up the process."

That would make sense... but Leon's stubbornness tended to overrule his logic. He wanted to be a self-taught player just like all his favourite rockstars, and he was going to do it.

"How do you know I'm not working off something?"

Naegi just cocked his eyebrow and smirked, which Leon's thought was a good a answer as any. He looked good with a smirk, Leon noted.

"Aren't you supposed to be kicking me out?"

Naegi shrugged and sat down on the chair opposite him, still smirking a little.

"My shift just ended; not my problem."

Leon couldn't help but laugh at that, and Naegi joined in too. This guy, Leon decided, was definitely his type.

"...I could teach you, if you want," Naegi suggested, "I'm not rockstar-level, but I could help get you started..."

Was Naegi... asking him out? Leon couldn't quite believe it. No one ever asked Leon out, he was always the doing the asking! And Naegi was offering to teach him how to play! Only an idiot would say no to that.

"Think you can handle me?"

"I don't know, but I wanna give it a try, hotshot."

"Leon," he corrected, "LeonKuwata."

"Nice name," Naegi commented, "I'm Makoto Naegi... so, what do you say? You want my help?"

"I suppose it does sound like a good idea," Leon replied, trying to come off as nonchalant as possible.

But as soon as Naegi's eyes lit up and that pretty smile grew on his face, Leon found himself once again reduced to a blushing mess.

"If you've got nothing going on now, you wanna come over mine and start practicing right away?"

"Yes."

For a moment, Leon was worried that he'd answered too quickly, but that passed after the playful laugh from Naegi.

"Let me just grab my stuff from inside and we'll go then," Naegi said.

"C-Cool."

Another grin was flashed Leon's away before Naegi left, and he was alone. Instead of packing away his guitar though, Leon just sat there and tried to process what the hell had just happened. And once he had, he grinned.

The mother from the family gasped and got up, storming inside again, but Leon didn't care. He had a date, so what did it matter?


End file.
